: Does jumping a rope in the anaerobic zone build muscle? My teacher says that we build muscle and increase our anaerobic fitness in the anaerobic zone(that's 80%-90%) of heart rate. Is this true? Can jumping the rope at say

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Will it build muscle? Maybe very very slightly, but certainly not anything notable. Muscle is built by breaking down muscle fibers by presenting a sufficient challenge and then allowing them the time and fuel to recover. Can jumping rope do this? It’s certainly possible, but compared to something like lifting weights you’re only getting a small fraction of the muscle building results (and even that takes a lot of time to be noticed).

Why is jumping rope so inefficient for building muscle? One word; failure. Working your muscles to or close to failure ensures that you are breaking them down enough to produce a good hypertrophic response from the body. With jumping rope, sure you may break down some muscle fibers and you certainly may get stronger, but it’s simply not going to be anything notable.

Which isn’t to say that jumping rope is worthless, that isn’t the case at all. Jumping rope is a great conditioning exercise that engages many body parts and builds cardiovascular endurance. However, it is suboptimal for building muscle. If you want to build muscle, you can still enjoy it, but you’ll want to include other things into your routine.